Inditex generates 12% of its sales via e-commerce

Inditex, the owner of chains including Zara and Massimo Dutti, is generating 12% of its total sales in countries where it operates online through its e-commerce platform, and has reached 49 online markets, CEO Pablo Isla announced on Tuesday at the company’s AGM.

In a speech to shareholders, Isla attributed the company’s success to two strategic axes: its ability to react during its campaigns and constantly renew its offer, and the integration of its physical stores and online channel.

This has helped the largest clothing group in the world to achieve a sustainable sales growth, rising by 59% over the last five years, he said.

The Inditex chief executive added that the group’s e-commerce sales grew 41% in the 2017 financial year ended in February, accounting for 10% of the company’s total revenue. The online figures were released for the first time in March.

In addition to these numbers, Isla revealed new data this week. Online sales now account for 12% of the total sales in the 49 markets where the company operates an online shop.

The executive indicated that last year like-for-like sales in stores that have been open for more than a year (including online operations) increased by 5% in 2017 and 36% over the last five years.

Isla said this data reflects “what we are able to grow organically without new openings. It demonstrates clearly and significantly the health of our company.”

Meanwhile, he added that the group will continue to invest to drive sustainable profitable growth in the next few years, especially in the areas of technology, logistics, store network and online expansion.

Along this lines, Inditex invested 1.8 billion euros last year and around 8 billion over the last five years. The figure for the current year is expected to be around 1.5 billion euros ($1.7bn).